A look at the Adobe suite of products and how integrations can speed up the post-production process, using the Broadcast industry as Best Practice.
Broadcast is one of the most demanding production environments. Quality and consistency are critical. Delivery deadlines are absolute. Turnaround time needs to be calculated with precision. And everything has to work every day. Broadcast, therefore, provides a perfect laboratory for post-production efficiency.
The core principles of efficient broadcast production apply for all video content creators:
- Keep it simple
- Standardise workflows
- Automate repetitive tasks
- Concentrate on content, not codecs
And the basic steps in broadcast production are also the same for all video production.
Bring media into the editing application Edit and enhance content Incorporate branded graphics and audio elements Collaborate with other teams and team members Export for viewing platforms
Support Partners has deployed and currently supports over 1,000 Adobe users across 5 continents. Each environment has its own technology stack and nuance and each workflow has its own unique deliverables. We work with Adobe because it allows the creation of flexible, best of breed environments that are malleable to the ever-changing needs of media production.
In this series of blogs, we are going to look at how the Adobe Creative Cloud and its open and collaborative nature allows Support Partners to accelerate media production workflows through integrations.
Why are Integrations Important?
In the simplest terms, integrations put extra features at your fingertips. They save you time and money by avoiding the disruption of navigating multiple applications and systems. Aside from simply working faster, deep integrations can transform how broadcasters (and all video professionals) create content.
Premiere Pro and the Adobe Creative Cloud applications are designed as open platforms with extensive APIs for third-party technologies. Hundreds of companies have created extensions and integrations that accelerate productivity and save costs.
Examining use-cases in broadcast, this and the following blog posts provide an overview of integration tools that allow users to accelerate, automate and standardise their workflows. The principles that apply for high-performance broadcast production are valid for all types of video production.
Adobe Exchange
Adobe Exchange is an application marketplace for post-production that sits alongside your creative and technical tools. It is filled with workflow tools and integrations to streamline your production processes.
Whether you need a comms integration to Slack or Microsoft Teams for the reviewing and approving of projects, a Vimeo upload panel in your edit suite, a full MAM sitting next to your timeline or the latest Web_M encoder, they are just a button push away from being added to your Adobe CC installation via the Exchange marketplace.
As Adobe has created an open system for developers via its use of Panels and SDKs this is constantly being updated.
Panels
Adobe Panels allows the user to embed external systems and workflow tools directly inside the Adobe Platform. The Panels allow further enhancement to the capabilities of the Adobe toolset and connect seamlessly with other tools in your workflow. Whether you want to automate complex workflows, access your MAM without leaving your NLE, send assets to your render farm, or build a custom metadata management tool, panels are one of the simplest ways to do this.
Many manufacturers such as Frame.IO, Trint and Axle include a pre-built Panel when you purchase their product that integrates directly into Adobe. If, however, a panel does not exist the openness and extensibility of the Adobe SDK allows users to create a custom panel internally or via a third-party.
APIs and SDKs
Each application within Adobe CC comes packaged with a set of APIs and SDKs enabling the flexibility to extend the environment in creative and custom ways. These can be used to build Panels and Extensions from scratch, seamlessly integrate with third-party systems, or add support for new formats. They can be used by in-house development teams or, as we are increasingly seeing, development companies are recognising the value of Adobe’s marketplace by creating these tools and making them available via Adobe Exchange.
Tying together a marketplace, the SDKs, and the front end Panel architecture, Adobe has ensured that the needs of production users and content creators are being continually met in this time where business and client requirements change at a high rate.
Adobe Creative Cloud
The ease in which Adobe can integrate with the wider production ecosystem is a big draw for many broadcasters, however, the real jewel in Adobe’s crown is the integration of features across the Adobe toolset. A great example of this is the ‘Content Aware Fill’ feature in After Effects which was born from the same technology as its Photoshop counterpart.
Content-Aware Fill allows users to remove signs, people, cars or anything you can imagine from a video file, automatically replacing the object with a render of what would naturally be the background. This is just one example but the use of AI throughout the Adobe toolset accelerates most users day to day activities, setting Adobe apart. Sensei features in Premiere alone such as AutoDucking, Color Matching, Media tagging and Intelligent Search dramatically reduce edit time but when combined with Sensei features in Photoshop, After Effects and Audition you can see why many Broadcasters are using the Creative Cloud to deliver dynamic workflows for Versioning, Digital and Promo creation.
Keep checking the site for Blog 2 where we will be exploring how integrations can expedite the ingest process.
Ready to talk about your own Adobe needs? Get in touch with the team today! hello@support-partners.com